Place:Avon (town), Livingston, New York, United States

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source: Family History Library Catalog

the text in this section is copied from an article in Wikipedia

Avon is a town in Livingston County, New York, United States. It is south of Rochester. The town population was 7,146 at the 2010 census. The town was named after the River Avon in England. The village of Avon is in the northwest part of the town.

History

the text in this section is copied from an article in Wikipedia

The area around and including what would become Avon village was inhabited for millennia by Paleo-Indians and later by the Seneca people, the western-most tribe of the Iroquois Confederacy. After the Iroquois title to the land was extinguished in 1788 with the Phelps and Gorham Purchase, white and Black settlement of the area began. In 1789, Dr. Timothy Hosmer, Maj. Isaiah Thompson, William Wadsworth, and others from Hartford, Connecticut, purchased a tract east of the Genesee River and named it "Hartford" after their homeland. The town was organized in 1797. The town's name was changed to "Avon" in 1808 to avoid confusion with another Hartford in Washington County, New York. In 1818, part of the town was removed to form the new town of Rush. County lines shifted as well, Avon and Rush both being part of Ontario County until the formation of Livingston County and Monroe County in 1821.

The first permanent white settlers of Avon village were Gilbert and Maria (Wemple) Berry in 1789, who operated a tavern and a rope ferry on the east bank of the Genesee River. When Gilbert died in 1797, Maria Berry continued serving travelers in the inn until about 1812. The town's first gristmill was built by Capt. John Ganson in northwest Avon in 1789 and the first sawmill in 1797 on the Conesus Outlet built by Dr. Hosmer.

Mineral springs were an important resource of the early town. Beginning in the 1820s, people became interested in water as a therapy for all sorts of maladies, and mineral waters in particular for their reputed health benefits and even as cures. Avon, redolent in natural springs, soon became extremely popular with the afflicted. The wealthy, too, seeking relaxation and leisure, flocked to the town from far and wide. Numerous hotels and spas sprang up to take advantage of this fad, and bottling companies packaged the mineral water for sale. By the late 1890s to early 1900s, most of the hotels that had not closed due to the decline of the spa era had succumbed to fire or were soon razed. The Avon Inn is the only spa structure still standing in the town.

Points of historic interest in Avon include:

• The Avon Five Arch Bridge, a remnant of a railroad bridge over the Conesus Outlet at Littleville. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2012.
• The Avon Inn, added to the National Register in 1991.^[1]
• The Avon Erie Railroad Station, now a restaurant
• The Barber–Mulligan Farm, added to the National Register in 1980.
• Charlton Farm, a residence designed by J. Foster Warner and now a bed and breakfast
• Erie-Lackawanna Railroad bridge over the Genesee River, which connects Avon to the Genesee Valley Greenway, a rail trail.
• First Presbyterian Church of Avon, constructed in 1812 and added to the National Register in 2005.^[1]
• Tom Wahl's, a fast food restaurant chain which has its origin in Avon as a tiny ice cream shop called the Twin Kiss.

Research Tips

External Links

• Outstanding guide to Avon family history and genealogy resources (FamilySearch Research Wiki). Birth, marriage, and death records, town histories, cemeteries, churches, newspapers, libraries, and genealogical societies.